If you could train but don't train, you're not a black belt....

Just something that bugs me is the number of people I meet who used to do martial arts who don't say "I used to do martial arts" and instead say "I am a black belt".

I just posted something in another thread about a girl with a brown belt in a tkd style who strolled into a class and was like a fish out of water, couldn't even throw a kick and then later admitted she hadn't trained since she was 12, around 8-9 years ago. Did she think it would all come back to her? Did she have a Bruce Lee image in her head that clouded her lack of ability to do literally any tkd?

A lot of it is child taekwondo that in all honesty should not be recognised as taekwon-do. At my work, I met someone who claimed to be "2nd Poom" when he was younger. How the hell do you get a "2nd Poom"? How high does the Poom rank system go. Do we have Poom grandmasters?

Again, he started the conversation with, "You do taekwon-do? Me too, I'm a black belt" (he was at least 22, having not trained for at least 6-8 years).

We need to start spreading the word - if you don't train but could train then you aren't a black belt. Rant over, phew.

Personally I almost never tell people that I do martial arts without being specifically asked about it. The conversations it generally leads to are almost never interesting.

I have had similar experiences. When I helped organize and run a self defense seminar one of the people who showed up to participate was a "black belt" in taekwondo. During stretching the guy could barely touch his toes or do any of the other warm ups much less kick me in the ribs. His striking was also sloppy and he didn't seem to know what we were doing.

I particularly dislike not just the lapsed "once were blackbelts" deluding themselves on their competency, but the breed that after doing five or six different MA's for less than 2 years at a time decide - "I've been doing MA's for _insert_ years, so I must be the equivalent of a BB".

Don't even get me started on the muppets that make up own their stuff after the above behaviour...

I particularly dislike not just the lapsed "once were blackbelts" deluding themselves on their competency, but the breed that after doing five or six different MA's for less than 2 years at a time decide - "I've been doing MA's for _insert_ years, so I must be the equivalent of a BB".

Or once they hear that you have actually persevered and trained consistently for multiple years (decades) to really understand a particular art, come back with "well I know 5 styles which is much better than just one or two"

Another favorite is Mr. "I could have gotten my black belt, but I decided to learn on my own. Now I just work out on my own so I can concentrate on the stuff that really works for me. I do my numchucks and sword, and a couple of my buddies get together and throw down once in a while."

There is a martial arts show team at my school (showy flashy useless stuff) I joined cuz I thought it would be a good addition to my serious MA training. Some girl comes in claiming to be a TKD red belt and then when we do the work outs I ( a recent yellow belt) turned out to be much better than her. Turns out she hasn't done it for a few years and I do parkour too so that helped. Then some other girl comes in jeans and tight as hell clothing with no experience who thinks that she can be like bruce lee right away. She couldn't even to a correct front kick and giggle each time she messed up and slowed everyone down. Sorry for ranting but people like this annoy me too.

And the displayed level of competency in application - theres always the "natural" uber warrior type that picks up stuff super fast. I'm a grinder - slow and steady - or maybe just slow...

If you earn it you have it. Sorry, your skill goes away not your rank. So, If I ask do you have a Black Belt I do not expect someone to give me a reason or breakdown of their life and why or what level of practice they engage in.